I have Adobe Flash Player 11.2.202.228 installed which has been checked and tested to be OK on the Adobe site for BOTH browsers.

In case the flash player had been corrupted I have uninstalled and reinstalled Adobe flash many times with the Adobe uninstaller and with REVO.

For some reason I cannot playback videos using Adobe Flash on certain sites like IMDB and Rottentomatoes.com when the Adobe flash player has been integrated with JW and IVA players.

I can play all videos on YouTube and bbc.co.uk on BOTH browsers without any real issues.

In IE8:

A. when I try and play a trailer on RottenTomatoes.com, the playback window is blacked out with a small text field in the top left hand corner "Get Adobe Flash Player'. This is the same for every trailer on RottenTomatoes. The video playback here uses IVA player.

B. When I try and play the IMDB based trailers, playback is slowmo and jerky where the audio and video content are out of sync. The CPU is maxed out during this playback. When I try and play the video in a new tab, the playback window is blank/white and no playback occurs i.e. no flash player identified. IMBD uses JW player.

C. when I visit Lovefilm.com and play a trailer, playback is almost normal but still uses 100% CPU.

D. However when I visit Digivers.com who use IVA player with the Adobe Player, playback appears to be normal and CPU usage more or less normal.

I am not a internet/pc engineer but it would appear that IMDB are using a type of HTML5 player in some kind of combination with Adobe Flash Player. (?) I have identified the IMDB player as a JW Player (http://www.longtailvideo.com/ ).

I have spoken to IMDB and they say that it must be a local issue with my individual system configuration but I cannot understand the contradiction of being able to play flash videos on Youtube but not on IMDB or Rottentomatoes.com.

If it is a local issue, I wouldn't know where to look first. And if I need to download a MS update or some additional MS software, I wouldn't know what to look for.

I also have a laptop running i3 core and windows 7 but do not see this issue.

Reload the IMDB site and videos on the same link will no longer play. Neither will any controls be visible.

I tested it myself today and found that restarting in Firefox 'Safe Mode' allowed the content to play, but it's unlikely to be an add-on issue since trailers played correctly before I installed an additional add-on. The bug is documented here: IMDB videos fail after installing Firefox Add-on

If the problem is still ongoing with you, could you try restarting Google Chrome in Incognito Mode to see if it makes any difference?

thank you for your comments. However I am still seeing the same issues.

Setting Google Chrome to incognito showed no change i.e. no improvement for both IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.

If there is something in my system that could be interfering with playback on these 2 website and not on Youtube, would you know how to trouble shoot it?

In regard to IE8, I found that I had set 'Compatibility View' settings for ALL websites. When I unchecked this option, I found that Rottentomatoes could now see Adobe Flash Player and I was able to playback trailers to a fashion. However the issue of playback on IMBD remained regardess of compatibility settings.

I havent tested Firefox but would anticipate that there would be no change.

I just cant understand why I can playback videos on BBC.co.uk, YouTube, Didivers and other sites that use Adobe flash player but NOT on IMDB and RT. Are they using a modified player platform? What are the JW and IVA players and what is their relationship with the Adobe Flash player?

In my particular case, the problem was caused by a privacy add-on called "Disconnect". It seems that when you land on certain sites, data is relayed to Google via a widget. On IMDB, that widget was being blocked by "Disconnect". More info on concerning the add-on can be found here: https://disconnect.me/tools By unblocking it and then refreshing the page, the video played normally.

There appears to be a privacy issue with this forum even because I have "Disconnect" enabled at this moment and the widget which would normally relay what I'm doing here to Google is being blocked. In that respect, whenever the Google widget is blocked, "Disconnect" displays a "G" icon in the Firefox location bar. Clicking it allows me to unblock it if I want to. See screenshot.

This doesn't help you any though since you don't have Firefox installed. Maybe you could consider installing it to see if it makes any difference. As I say, IMDB works just fine without the privacy tool enabled. I don't have any problems on Rottentomatoes either incidentally. Here's the download link to Firefox: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/fx/

Do you have any security software installed like McAfee Site Advisor, or AVG Safe Search? These type of scanners can interfere with video playback as well.

Unfortunately I do not have disconnect in FF. And I see the same issues as I see on IE8 and Chrome.

Incidentally I am having great difficulties replying via the forum. When I click on 'view the full discussion' it takes me to the forum page but the option to 'reply' is missing at the bottom of your reply. I then sign in, but the subsequent page doesn't give me the link to go back to the forum page. Below is the page after signing in. Where is the link to go back to the forum?

However when I do make it back to the forum page, even though I am signed in, the option to reply is still missing. Is there a problem with the forum pages?

Unfortunately I do not have disconnect in FF. And I see the same issues as I see on IE8 and Chrome.

Incidentally I am having great difficulties replying via the forum. When I click on 'view the full discussion' it takes me to the forum page but the option to 'reply' is missing at the bottom of your reply. I then sign in, but the subsequent page doesn't give me the link to go back to the forum page. Below is the page after signing in. Where is the link to go back to the forum?

However when I do make it back to the forum page, even though I am signed in, the option to reply is still missing. Is there a problem with the forum pages?

That can be a pain getting back to the forum again. Best thing to do is to reload the link in the email after you've logged in.

As regards the missing 'Reply' link, I've come across that myself several times, but usually only when Adobe has taken the forums offline due to SPAM attacks. I haven't seen it during the past week though.

As regards your problem, I've tried to replicate the issue in IE8, but everything functions as it should and both IMDB and Rottentomatoes videos play as they should. You could maybe check your player settings on the Global Settings Manager The panel you see when you load that site are the actual settings on your own machine. Use the Help files to identify what each menu does.

However, when I right click on the 'normal' playback window in a trailer on IMDB trailer in Chrome, one of the options was to 'open video in a new tab'. When I did this, the video playback window in the new tab has half the size and the playback was absolutely normal!

However, when I right click on the 'normal' playback window in a trailer on IMDB trailer in Chrome, one of the options was to 'open video in a new tab'. When I did this, the video playback window in the new tab has half the size and the playback was absolutely normal!

Any idea what is going on here?

You might be better off posting this particular question on the Google Chrome Help Forum because in their browser, the Flash player is embedded and may function differently than it does in other browsers where it's a plugin.

I'd be interested to know what they say about your discovery though. It sounds a bit odd in any event.

This machine is boosted up by replacing all HD´s exept of those used purely for storage with fast SSD ones and its cleaned up of garbage XP makes continually. Disks, registry etc plus there are some tweaks to boost an old XP added.

Difference is that I use Opera 11.60 but still experience very annoying jagging and out of sync voice on IMDB videos. Actually they are useless.

When Flash plug-in starts I see a whopping jump of CPU usage by Opera from 20-30% to 90-99%

Thank you for your valued input. I thought that I was going crazy and the only one with this issue.

As a result, I made the drastic decision to format my hard drive and reinstall XP. Without adding any other apps, I downloaded and installed all the XP updates including SP3 and IE8. I therefore have a clean system.

As a reminder I have

3.06ghz celeron D CPU,

1.5GB RAM,

Asrock PV4M800 mobo with onboard VIA/S3 display (which is currently running the best driver)

C drive = 300 GB SATA HDD

+ 2 internal back up IDE drives

+ 1 external USB back up drive.

I then downloaded Google chrome and the Adobe Flash player for IE8.

I then tried to play a video on IMDB and RottenTomatoes(RT) on both browsers.

1. Using Chrome

A. Playback in IMDB was slightly jerky/slomo where audio/video was slightly out of sync where CPU usage was almost 100% (not as bad as in IE8). However, when I clicked on 'open video in new tab', the playback was fine(CPU usage was about 85%).

B. Playback in RT was almost OK where CPU usage was almost 100%.

C. Playback in BBC.co.uk and Youtube was fine where CPU usage was about 40%.

2. Using IE8

A. Playback in IMDB was very jerky/slomo where audio/video was out of sync where CPU is >100%

B. Playback in RT is OK where CPU was ~80%.

C. Playback in BBC.co.uk and YouTube absolutely fine where CPU was ~40%.

As I said in previous posts, I cant get my head around the fact that if all these websites are using Adobe Flash , then why am I seeing these issues? Also no one has explained to be the relationship between the JW player that IMDB uses in conjunction with Adobe Flash or the IVA player which RT uses with Adobe flash .

Finally , another huge pain is the inability to reply via the forum. More often than not when I click on the link in the email from the forum i.e. 'view the full discussion' , it takes me to the forum but there is no 'Reply' icon available. Even after signing in, and if I manage to find my way back to the forum, the option to reply is still missing . This feels like a bug with the forum.

Asrock PV4M800 mobo with onboard VIA/S3 display (which is currently running the best driver)

C drive = 300 GB SATA HDD

+ 2 internal back up IDE drives

+ 1 external USB back up drive.

Finally , another huge pain is the inability to reply via the forum. More often than not when I click on the link in the email from the forum i.e. 'view the full discussion' , it takes me to the forum but there is no 'Reply' icon available. Even after signing in, and if I manage to find my way back to the forum, the option to reply is still missing . This feels like a bug with the forum.

Time to invest in a new system I feel. You're CPU dates from 2004 and was designed to run software available at that time. We've moved on a bit since then and taking into account your onboard graphics, it's hardly surprising that your CPU is going ballistic when running Flash.

I don't know what the reason is with the missing "Reply" button though. I'll pass it on to one of the Adobe guys to see what he has to say.

LOL I´m a male. Veka is an old Finnish nickname meaning about the same thing as ´bro´ ´brotha´ or ´dude´ in American English.

Slight corrrection again Xircal. I´m using Opera and never Chrome. This is more close to FF as it uses FF/Mozilla plugin in VLC player.

Sadly there is a point there when you mentioned our CPU age. Its true that these machines just dont have the power to handle HD video. Actually my mobile phone (Qualcomm 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU) or my TV can handle HD video better then this PC. IMHO the CPU speed is not really the issue but both my phone and TV actually have another prosessor to handle graphics including video.

Weird thing is that I can still watch HD videos from YouTube or even full 1080p (Matroska .mkv or Nikon .mov) videos using VLC player with this PC so flash pleyer is maybe still wasting some CPU time. Just saying it does not perform as good as straight stand alone media players.

@surfing69

For me IMDB serves 480 video if available as a default. Hover your mouse in right upper corner and you see a quality menu. Choose "Standard" it might help little bit on jagging but for me its still not pretty to watch.

ED it: Tried IMDB trailer by IE8 browser. That was really bad like watching a bad stop motion clip and sound was off about 1,5-2 seconds.

Yes I agree this is all very strange. I have no problem with playing vids on VLC or other stand alone players.

Changing the settings from 480 to standard in IMDB doesnt help at all. When I went to Youtube I found that I had relatively no problems playing the standard res vids at 360p but began to see perfomance issues if i selected 480p and it became much worse (similar to what I am seeing with IMDB0 when I selected 780 HD res.

I am comimg to the conclusion that the problem with viewing these types of video has to be hardware related and requies an upgrade (unfortunatley means dipping in to my pocket)

I spent an hour on the phone with a friend last night because she suddenly couldn't play flash games or videos anymore. After much ado, it appeared that she'd installed a 'free' app which came bundled with AVG, a change of search provider and an app which was regularly feeding her ads (she'd just clicked 'Next' without bothering to remove the checkmarks which allowed this junk to install).

Needless to say, having two AVs running on the same machine is just asking for trouble. The AVG AV in particular was performing a scan of whatever game or video she was trying to play or watch which gave the impression that Flash wasn't working. After I showed her how to uninstall it and reinstate her normal search provider, her system functioned properly again.

If either of you (sorry Veka, didn't know you were a guy), have security software which performs network monitoring and scans everything you do on the system, try disabling those scanners. If you've got AVAST antivirus, right click the orange icon in systray, go to "Avast Shields Control" and choose the disable all shields for one hour. Consult this list for instruction on how to disable other AVs: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic114351.html Then go test Flash again.

Also, did either of you install any new software prior to the problem occurring? If so, check to make sure you didn't get something you didn't ask for as well.

And as you can recall, I did a fresh XP install a few days ago where I had no other apps installed and still saw the same issues.

I have to concede to the inevitable conclusion that its time for a hardware upgrade. :-(.

This means parting with my precious pennies

Sorry, I must admit that fact had slipped my mind.

My advice on the hardware front is to go for high end components where it concerns motherboard and processor. Yes, they're more expensive, but they perform a lot better than cheaper versions and will last much longer. I have an ASUS Crosshair mobo in this machine which I built in 2007 and the only hiccup it's had in all this time was a failed battery just last month. The mobo set me back around 220 Euros at the time, but it's been a good investment and I've no regrets.

Dont feel sorry Xircal I´m not offended at all actually that was very polite to bring that isuue up like you did.

Like if my nick was Kari its easy to mistake me as female ( as Kari Byron in Mythbusters) but here in Finland Kari is a male name.

Pretty sure that this PC is very clean and dont have any useless or CPU hogging software in it.

Bare with me if I go OT and explain this little bit more.

Actually I have a background of a computer geek but with a little twist. Have done little bit of programming but that was way back in late 80´s and early 90´s before Windows thru Win 3.x. Since then its more like one can call me a superuser or net activist. Have 15+ years experience of ´cleaning´ the web of malicious and criminal sites. That means finding spammers, phishing and illegal pharmacies to kill those sites. Who are in charge and how internet actually works (ICANN,IANA,ARIN,RIPE,APNIC,Registrars etc) how the actual backbone of net works. So that means that with this PC must be very secure, updated and perfom nicely as I need to follow links in spam mails (please never click a link in spam email unless you know what you are doing!) to report them. This brings me to my base principle rule: ´I do not tolerate any crap from my PC´ Thats why I´m here at this post chain. Annoyed by the fact that IMDB trailers are just crap.

IMHO what we need now is a person who looks at the source code of IMDB trailer player page and finds out if there lies a resolution to this because I still cant believe that an PC can play full HD parfectly in other place like standalone or YouTube but fails miserably in there.

I havent a clue about source code. All I know that I cant play trailers on IMDB.

I have done some more research and found that playback of 720p HD videos on Youtube is choppy and similar to play back in IMDB. However playback of 480p video on Youtube is fine.

The story is very different on IMDB. Here the trailer opens in default of 480p and playback is CR*P. Even changing the setting makes no difference. The question is, why does a 480p video play OK on Youtube but not on IMDB? Ther must be something else going on.

Also, despite asking the same question a number of times, i.e

"I am not a internet/pc engineer but it would appear that IMDB are using a type of HTML5 player in some kind of combination with Adobe Flash Player. (?) I have identified the IMDB player as a JW Player (http://www.longtailvideo.com/ )."

someone has yet to explain this relationship.

The response from IMDB has been less helpful repeatedly stating that its my machine that must be at fault. I do recall seeing something similar some time ago where if I clicked on a trailer, the next window showed a playback window that was white and blank.

I might try and illicit another response from them by sending this correspondence to col.needham@imdb.com

Anyway, in the end it might be sensible to upgrade my 7 year old system.

I think I might be able to shed some light on the playback issue you mentioned. I don't know if you read every post on the link I provided in my initial response concerning the Firefox bug (as it relates to Imdb), but in post #3, Anthony Hughes describes the video as playing in an ad container. Here's the link again: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=729907

That being the case, there might be a page design fault which is affecting flash performance. I can't reproduce it myself though since I regularly use a Firefox add-on called Adblock Plus to prevent ads from loading.

Unfortunately I dont really use Firefox. My main browser is Chrome and occasionally IE8. I did try ABP but it had no positive effect. In fact it contradicts IMDB advice to disable ad and pop up blockers.

If I am seeing this issue in Chrome I suspect that the same will apply for Firefox.

Quoting Xircal "That being the case, there might be a page design fault which is affecting flash performance. "

I assume Opera Dragonfly is unfamiliar to both of you who participated in this thread? No matter you just need to know its a debugging tool that comes built in with Opera. http://www.opera.com/dragonfly/ Yep I cant say thats very familiar to me but I sometimes use it to investigate rogue websites. Know its time to see what lies hidden inside imdb.com. One of its features is an error reporting. Look what happens when I launched one trailer from IMDB front page!

Can someone please please sehd some light on the following question that hasnt been answered.

"I am not a internet/pc engineer but it would appear that IMDB are using a type of HTML5 player in some kind of combination with Adobe Flash Player. (?) I have identified the IMDB player as a JW Player (http://www.longtailvideo.com/ )."

Can someone please please sehd some light on the following question that hasnt been answered.

"I am not a internet/pc engineer but it would appear that IMDB are using a type of HTML5 player in some kind of combination with Adobe Flash Player. (?) I have identified the IMDB player as a JW Player (http://www.longtailvideo.com/ )."

yep - ur right .Certainly not for the layman! My brain turned to mush after a few paragraphs.

I was asking this question in case this had a bearing on the issues i was seeing. Youtube doesnt appear to use this type of web based player and I was wondering why IMDB uses this instead of the stand alone flash player.